Escaping the Repugnant Conclusion: Rank-discounted Utilitarianism with Variable Population

Geir B. Asheim and Stephane Zuber

Memo 23/2012

 

Evaluation of climate policies and other issues requires a variable population setting where population is endogenously determined. We propose and axiomatize the rank-discounted critical-level utilitarian social welfare order. It is shown to ll out the space between critical-level utilitarianism and (a version of) critical-level leximin. Moreover, it satises many conditions and principles used to evaluate variable population criteria. In particular, it avoids the repugnant conclusion even when the critical level is zero.

Memo-pdf

 

 

Published June 23, 2014 10:29 AM - Last modified Mar. 28, 2024 2:22 AM